


Not a JSA Brat

by BookofOdym



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types, Infinity Inc. (Comics), Justice Society of America (Comics)
Genre: All comic characters have bad stories, Apologies, Character Study, Gen, I have so many issues with what Alan did to Henry and I'm trying to like work out my feelings, Institutional Abuse, Medical Abuse, but it really was
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:20:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27404179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookofOdym/pseuds/BookofOdym
Summary: Green Lantern and Brainwave Jr have a discussion about the latter's institutionalization.
Relationships: Alan Scott & Hal Jordan, Alan Scott & Hank King Jr., Alan Scott & Henry King Jr.
Kudos: 8





	Not a JSA Brat

**Author's Note:**

> I have read... basically what the DC wiki says is all of Henry's appearances, and I have a lot of opinions about his breakdown.  
> Like. For instance. I wonder what Jade straight up telling him his father was nothing but an evil man had to do with his later breakdown, where the Maxima had to tell him his father was more complex person than that to help calm him down. It's... a weird connection.  
> The fact that the people he fought was a team that included Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold, and the fact that he had a positive interaction with specifically those three during his Infinity Inc. days, while most of the JSA treated him really badly because of his father... could it be a man realizing something was wrong, and trying to reach the only people he thought would help him, before his breakdown made him view them as enemies?  
> Then Maxima wanting him to get actual treatment, but Alan stepping in before it could be done, and moving him to a new facility which... was honestly a hell asylum on the level of Arkham. The guards were insulting and getting violent with a catatonic man. There was a whole conversation with one of the doctors where she was like "thank you for letting us study this unique mind," and absolutely no one involved talked about helping the patient get better.  
> When Henry later broke out and actually did fight Alan, Kyle and Jade part of me was like "fuck yeah this is justified, get him in the balls, Henry".

There was an annual celebration on that night, one being held by the Justice League, although what they were celebrating, Alan wasn’t quite sure, possibly the fact that they’d managed to get an entire year without a Crisis Event. Ordinarily, he’d have avoided going. Alan was far too busy to attend such frivolous things. He was only going because Jay forced him to. 

Jay was acting... suspicious, Alan thought, which was probably a bad sign, because the last time he’d acted this suspicious, he’d tried to set Alan up with Ray Palmer, which in itself hadn’t necessarily been a bad matchup, except for the part where Alan had had to spend the next six hours avoiding being murdered by Carter Hall. 

He still had vivid nightmares about opening the door of his hiding place to find Hawkman’s mask, right there, staring at him. 

Naturally, he ditched Jay the moment he started heading towards one of the many, many, many heroes he’d adopted in the superhero community, not ready for the attempt to set him up with a much younger man. Really, Alan was a centennial, he might have just come out, but he was much too old to be dating anyone. 

A few of the JSA members were dotted around the room. Mostly hanging around with their own families or their successors. Carter was with Ray, as expected because even though Alan found them being best friends slightly strange, with the giant age gap, it didn’t seem like either man shared his issues. 

He spotted Hal on the other side of the room, and walked over, fully planning on lecturing his successor about his latest stupid plan, but stopped when he noticed who the younger man was talking to. 

Captain Atom wasn’t a surprise. Both men were in the Air Force. Both of them had turned to villainy at some point in their lives and come back from it, so it made sense that they would have a lot to talk about. 

Booster and Beetle were... a little more concerning. Hal had a tendency to not get along with more serious heroes, which Alan felt greatly attributed to him being... like that. Booster especially was concerning (Beetle had at least some amount of discipline and had saved the superhero community’s collective asses enough times to get some leeway) because he was a bad influence. 

Alan realized that he would have to insert himself into the situation before some inevitable chaos started, and he took a step towards the group. That was when he spotted the fifth person. 

Him. 

The thing about high-level psychics was that they tended to pick up on it when you were thinking about them, so the moment he spotted the fifth person, their eyes flicked up to meet with his. 

Without another word, Brainwave Junior fled from the scene. 

Every pair of eyes in the room turned to watch him as he ran out the front door of the building, presumably, never to return. 

Alan definitely hadn’t expected that, and apparently, neither had Hal, because when the first Green Lantern stopped beside him, he narrowed his eyes at him. “Okay, what did you do to the kid?” 

“Nothing,” Was Alan’s first response, before he closed his eyes, “He was a danger to himself and others. If you’d fought the first Brainwave like I did, you’d understand.” 

Hal blinked at him. “Alan... what did you do...” 

But before Alan could recount his side of the story, Captain Atom spoke up. “This would be... the stuff from 4 years ago, right? I remember BJ-” Alan didn’t think Henry would be any happier being called BJ than he had with being called Junior, especially not since Kord immediately broke out into one of his loud ‘Bwa-ha-ha’ laughs, “had an episode, he was making illusions of his father, and they were telling him to be evil. Maxima figured out what was going on, and he was going to get treatment, only an anonymous someone waved a lot of money, he was moved to an unknown facility, and she lost track of him. We couldn’t even find records of other patients.” 

“Alan...” Hal said, somewhat dangerously, and it was only at that point that Alan remembered Doctor Polaris. 

He had assumed that Hal would side with him, like Kyle had sided with him, without even thinking about the fact that one of Hal’s villains had very similar circumstances. Hal cared about Neal Emerson a lot and maintained a friendship with him when he wasn’t undergoing an episode. He’d even shut down multiple attempts to transfer Polaris to Arkham, citing the terrible conditions there. 

“I wanted him locked up,” Alan said, but even to his ears, it sounded weak. “He was... he attacked an arm of the Justice League!” 

“And you forgave me for Parallax. Parallax did a lot worse than fight these clowns.” Hal pointed out, while the three men around him shouted: ‘Hey!’ in unison, and Alan hated when he sounded like he was right. “Al... you need to talk to him.” 

A moment later, Alan was outside as well, where it had started chucking it down with rain, with no idea where he should even look for the lad. He should probably scan the area, he couldn’t have gotten far, and then... he supposed if Henry had just levitated away, he’d have to suck it up and call Merry. Who’d no doubt give him an earful for losing her boy. 

“Mister Scott,” a small voice said, and he whirled around to face Henry, who was standing right behind him. He looked like he had come from the beach, “I’m sorry I attacked you. Back when I fixed my meds, I mean.” 

Fixing his meds hadn’t been something he had been supposed to do, nothing about that place had been designed to make him better, so he must have read the mind of one of his doctors during a lucid period... found out what out of the cocktail of drugs he was given was supposed to help, and spat up everything else. That or he just stopped taking the meds entirely. 

Alan wasn’t going to fight him about that, though. Not when his curls were nearly plastered to his face from the rain. With a grunt of disapproval, he wrapped his cloak around the younger man, trying to warm him up, and effectively covered both of them with a construct. “Why were you out on the beach during this?” 

A look of surprise crossed Henry’s face, which meant he was at least trying to control his telepathy. “Didn’t want to pick up y- any thoughts.” He said, clearly stopping himself before he said the word ‘your’. “It’s easier not to if I’m alone.” 

Alan had a lot of pride, perhaps too much to be able to truly apologize. No matter how hard he tried, the words wouldn’t come out. “You’re not your father, Henry, and I shouldn’t have treated you like you were.” 

There. That was acceptable, a good semi-apology, and the lad could take it or leave it. 

He tried to ignore Henry blinking up at him. “Because my mom would kick your ass if she found out?” 

“No! Well, yes, but that wasn’t what I was thinking...” he paused, “how much of what we assume is your telepathy is just you making guesses?” 

“I’ll never tell.”


End file.
